The Hungarian government repeatedly ignored international legal orders to improve conditions for asylum seekers in a controversial border zone camp, according to a human rights group and an asylum seeker held inside the camp.

Asylum seekers trying to enter Hungary legally are detained in a so-called transit zone — a camp along the southern border with Serbia — and sometimes spend months waiting for a decision on their case. A container camp surrounded by barbed wire and closely guarded by police, the transit zone is off-limits to journalists and most civil society groups.

Since the Hungarian parliament approved the mandatory detention of asylum seekers in March, the transit zone has been criticized by watchdogs and international bodies concerned about the legality of automatically detaining asylum seekers, including children.

In March, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the detention of two Bangladeshi asylum seekers who were confined to the compound for three weeks before being sent back to Serbia amounted to a “de facto deprivation of their liberty.”

But Hungary is now being accused of defying direct orders from the Strasbourg-based court regarding families and minors detained in the transit zone, thereby breaching the European Convention on Human Rights.

“This practice of ignoring the interim measures of the court not only breaches the convention and Hungary’s obligations, but has severe effects on our clients and must end immediately,” said András Léderer, advocacy officer at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group that represents three families and one unaccompanied minor who are in the transit zone and have had international court rulings ignored.

“Sometimes I was forced to get food from the dustbin near the lunchroom, I was very very hungry” — A father in the transit zone camp

In one case, the court issued an emergency order on May 19 regarding a family of five living in the camp — a 38-year Iranian citizen; his wife, an Afghan citizen who was eight months pregnant; and their three children, aged 7 years, 6 years and 10 months.

In documents seen by POLITICO, the European Court of Human Rights said Budapest must “place the applicants, as soon as possible” in an environment that complies with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The court is allowed to make binding interim decisions such as this if there is “an imminent risk of irreparable harm.”

Nearly two months later, the court issued a second order, reiterating its original decision and adding that the government must “ensure regular meals also for the first applicant [the children’s father] and interpretation for the second applicant [the mother] during her medical check-ups.”

Living off leftovers

The father, who identified himself only as R, said in an instant messaging conversation that camp authorities had given him just one meal since he arrived there in mid-April and he had been living off his family’s leftovers.

Under new Hungarian rules introduced in the spring, authorities do not have to provide food to asylum seekers whose first application was rejected or canceled. R, who was separated from his family during the journey to the EU and went back to find them, falls into this category.

“Sometimes I was forced to get food from the dustbin near the lunchroom, I was very very hungry,” R wrote.

The second court order was also ignored, according to R and his legal representatives.

R said that two weeks ago the International Red Cross began providing him with occasional ready-meals and soup. International organizations and NGOs have very limited access to the camp, with Hungarian authorities acting as intermediaries between charity groups and asylum seekers.

Hungary’s government denies it has violated any court orders.

“The Hungarian authorities have never ignored any binding ruling coming from any (international) authorities,” a spokesman for the Hungarian government said in a statement. “Conditions in all facilities related to migration and asylum seekers come up to all international standards.”

In the border transit zone, R worries about his family’s wellbeing, in particular his three children.

“They are in a very bad situation,” he said. “They are sick and not given any medicine.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made anti-migration policies the centerpiece of his campaign for reelection in spring 2018.

“Europe is currently being prepared to hand its territory over to a new mixed, Islamized Europe,” Orbán said at an annual speech on July 22 in the Romanian town of Băile Tuşnad, known in Hungarian as Tusnádfürdő.

“In order for this to happen, for the territory to be ready to be handed over, it is necessary to continue the de-Christianization of Europe — and we can see these attempts. This is the aim of Brussels’ continuous and stealthy withdrawal of powers from the nation states,” he said. “This is the battlefield on which Central European countries are fighting today.”

It works!

The campaigns to label war refugees as illegal immigrants or terrorists, to label the EU as “Brussels” (i.e. new foreign occupants), to label one individual (György Soros) as the leader of a conspiracy against Hungary are only the reflection of the true goals of of certain people in power in the Hungary of today: stay in power and expand power to further enrich the small circle of family, friends and willful supporters.

And it truly works! According to recent surveys the majority of Hungarians going to vote in 2018 will further cement the status quo, by this displaying their state of mind to the world outside of their beloved, feared for and fenced in home country… Good Luck for the future!!!

Posted on 7/30/17 | 7:43 AM CET

ab

The European Court of Justice confirms that V4 countries maintain respect for law and order while Berlin/Brussels blatantly violate EU law.

Human rights lol

Brussels can waste millions in legal fees or hire an out of work EU citizen to drive down and pickup a carload of illegals and drop them off at junker the drunkers house each day, plenty of food there, but don’t touch the booze or he will send you back…lol

Posted on 7/30/17 | 11:48 AM CET

Joe

If they would have kept the thousands of dollars they spent on human smuggling services, they would have money to feed themselves, not wait for European taxpayers to feed them.

Posted on 7/30/17 | 2:38 PM CET

Emanuele

To check which should be, according to the European parliament, the actions to be taken regarding the migratory phenomenon (and also to make some good laughs), search on Parliament’s website the resolution of April 12-2016 entitled “The situation in the Mediterranean and the need for an holistic EU approach to migration “- Reference procedure 2015/2095 (INI): the inspiration to an “holistic” approach should already give you an indication of the content of the resolution.

Some examples of the indications contained in the resolution: “Private shipmasters or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who genuinely assist people in distress at sea should not risk punishment for such assistance”, practically legalizing almost any NGO abuse; “Military operations should not be the predominant aspect of any holistic approach to migration and reiterates that Operation Sophia must not distract assets already deployed in the Mediterranean from saving lives at sea “(where “assets already deployed in the Mediterranean” is to be read as “NGOs ships”).

In the face of the “holistic approach” recommended by the highest representative body of the EU, Orban appears more and more like a genius in terms of reasonableness, foresight and good governance.